Although Catholics will claim to hold to the Bible, there are many things in the Bible which contradict or disagree with the official teachings of the Catholic Church. In fact, a comparison of what the Catholic Church actually teaches with what the Bible teaches reveals many serious contradictions and differences. Because of this, it is clear that the Bible is not the ultimate authority of the Catholic Church, but, rather, it is what the Catholic Church calls "Tradition" as has been taught, maintained, transformed and added to by the Pope and Bishops throughout history that has become their authority (see List of Catholic Heresies and Traditions
and List of Catholic False Doctrines
). Because the Bible is not their sole authority, by definition, they must be considered a false gospel, and it must be clearly recognized that they teach a false Jesus. Yes, they do correctly believe in the biblical doctrine of the trinity with Jesus being one person of the triune God, but other than this and some issues on morality, there really is very little in common with Catholicism and true biblical Christianity. Catholicism has rightly come to be known as the biggest cult in the world.

The Addition of the Apocrypha to Holy Writ

The Catholic Church added the Apocryphal writings to the Bible in 1546 AD at the Council of Trent despite God's clear command in about 95 AD through the book of Revelation not to do so. This command is stated in Revelation 22,

18
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
19
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

It is important to realize that the apocryphal books were never accepted as Holy Scripture by the earliest Christian churches; neither by the early Jewish Church. Indeed, it is a very serious sin to add to the Word of God; those who do it are worthy of death. And because adding to Holy Scripture widens and so changes the authority of the Bible, those who do so are worshipping another Jesus; a false Jesus.

Because Catholicism is so entrenched in the making of and veneration of images in the form of statues, pictures and the like, they have had to delete or change the 2nd commandment of God's Word because this command specifically commands them not to make or bow down to such images. This is just arrogant satanic manipulation of God's Word. Here is what the 2nd commandment says in the King James Version,

Ex 20:4
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

How clear can it be! God most certainly commands not to make images in any way for the aiding or help of religious worship, and not to bow down to them, but these verses have been deleted from the Catholic Bible while Catholics continue to bow before images (see Pope Worships Mary and Hail Mary! Hail Satan! and Bowing)

According to the Catholic Church, salvation is not by grace alone, but by grace and works. They believe that the death of Christ gives grace to people as a sort of starting point for one's salvation, but whether someone eventually becomes saved or not depends on how that person uses that grace they have been given in this life. According to them, one cannot know they are saved in this life because salvation depends upon one being a part of the Catholic Church and sufficiently obeying the sacraments and teachings of the Church, and it is not possible, therefore, to know in this life whether one's obedience has been sufficient until Judgment Day. Therefore, Catholics have no assurance of salvation in this life. Their Church even goes so far in their dogma to pronounce a curse upon all those who would hold to the teaching of the assurance of salvation - thereby cursing all of God's true children - and so they have forced their members into a salvation plan of grace and works.

In opposition to the Catholic Churches teaching on salvation by grace plus works, the Bible teaches that salvation is a gift, and it does not depend upon works at all. God says in Ephesians 2,

8
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast
.

It is also stated in Titus 3,

5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Notice also that these verses speak of people already being saved in this life:
"
For
by grace are ye saved"
and
"
according
to his mercy he saved us."
Clearly, although the Catholic Church teaches that you cannot know whether you are saved in this life, the Bible teaches the complete opposite: you can know that you are saved in this life because you actually can become saved in this life. This assurance of salvation is also stated most plainly in a verse like 1John 5,

13
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

But even though salvation is entirely a gift of God and does not depend upon doing works at all, this does not mean that one who is saved does no works. On the contrary, if one is really saved, that person will do works as a result of salvation, but not in order to gain salvation. This is why it is stated in James 2,

26
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also
.

In other words, although works cannot save anyone, they will be seen working through everyone who has been saved (that is, given the gift of faith). Works do not bring about salvation in any way, but they are the result of salvation. This means that if one claims to be saved, but does not obey the teachings of Holy Scripture, such a one is a liar and the truth is not in him (1John 2:4). Can such a disobedient faith save anyone? Of course not! If it were true saving faith, or salvation, there would also be good works that go along with it.

Salvation may best be viewed as a complete package of faith which results in works of obedience to the Word of God. To be saved means that one has been completely gifted with faith and the ability and motivation for certain works to be done or worked out in this life which were specifically prepared for that person to do from before the foundations of the world. As we read in Ephesians 2,

10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus [saved] unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

What we see, then, is that God saves people for the purpose of doing good works. They are not saved by doing good works, but they do good works because they were already saved or
"
created
in Christ Jesus."
This doesn't mean that everyone who does good works is saved, but it does mean that everyone who is saved will do the good works of which they were ordained to do by God in obedience to the Word of God.

According to Catholic teaching, the mass is a sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Priest's consecration of the bread and wine is said to change them into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ which is then presented as a sacrifice upon the altar for sin. Not only is this absurd, but it goes against clear biblical teaching. The Bible makes it clear that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was sufficiently done one time and for all time as can be seen in the following passages:

Heb 7:27
Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.

Hebrews 9:
26
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
28
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Hebrews 10:
10
By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11
And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
12
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God;

But, in opposition to scripture, Catholic dogma does not teach that the one-time sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross was sufficient enough to save anyone. For them, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross can only initiate salvation, but it cannot completely save. To obtain complete salvation, one must obey the sacraments of the Church, which at least in part means regularly attendance and participation at the sacrifice of the Mass where Jesus becomes the bread and wine and is sacrificed upon the altar for sin.

According to Catholics, Transubstantiation is the miraculous transformation of the communion bread and wine in the Mass into the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ. This literal body of Christ is then consumed by each person who eats the wafer of bread at communion. According to Catholic teaching, this eating of the body of Christ is what Jesus was referring to in John 6,

51
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Unfortunately for Catholics, this is not what Jesus was teaching in this verse. It wasn't His literal body that people needed to literally eat, but it was through His death (the giving of His flesh) by which people needed to be brought to eternal life spiritually. This is why in the context of this verse we read,

Joh 6:63
It is the spirit that quickeneth
[that is, brings to life]
; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

"The flesh profiteth nothing" means that there is no profit in literally eating His flesh. The profit is in spiritually eating His flesh, which is a metaphor for believing in Him for salvation through spiritual rebirth by the Spirit of God. As we read in the context of John 6,

Joh 6:29
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

The Catholic Church believes there is a place of punishment and purification for the less serious sins that people will go to after this life in order to be temporarily punished and purified of sin before they can go to heaven. This temporary place is called Purgatory. It was first proclaimed as Church dogma at the Council of Florence in 1439 AD, and it has served Catholics well. Catholics have no assurance of salvation in this life because of their false teaching on salvation, so the coming up with a doctrine to better assure Catholics of eventually being purified in Purgatory so that they can eventually go to heaven has brought a lot of relief, albeit false relief, to weary sinners. Unfortunately for them, there is no clear support for Purgatory being taught anywhere in Holy Scriptures, so it is clear that such a teaching is simply a false teaching of man.

The doctrine of Purgatory runs contrary to the Bible. In the Bible it is clear that the blood of Jesus Christ purifies us of all sin; not just some sin and then the rest must be paid for in purgatory, but all sin. There is no sin to be paid for after this life for a saved person because such a person's sins have already been completely and thoroughly paid for by Christ.

Joh 19:30
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Heb 10:14
For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

1John 1:
7
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Joh 5:24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus . . .

1Thes. 5:9-10
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

The Immaculate Conception of Mary was first proclaimed as Catholic dogma in 1834 AD. This doctrine proclaims Mary to have been conceived without sin. According to this doctrine, Mary, like Jesus, led a completely sinless life from start to finish. It is easy to imagine just how this doctrine came into being. How could Mary have given birth to a sinless child named Jesus Christ unless she was sinless herself? Or how could the Mother of God as the Catholic Church calls her be a sinner?

The problem with this doctrine is that it is not biblical. In scripture Mary clearly recognized that Jesus was her Savior as she herself declares in Luke 1,

If Jesus is her Savior, then Mary must have had sin; otherwise, she would not have needed a Savior to save her from sin. Indeed, scripture most assuredly teaches that everyone except Jesus is a sinner and so needs a Savior:

Ps 51:5
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Jer 17:9
The heart isdeceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Ro 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Ro 5:12
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Ec 7:20
For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not

In the year 1950, Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption of Mary to be Church dogma. This is the belief that Mary was taken directly to heaven both in body and soul without having ever died after her life on this earth had been fulfilled. Unfortunately for the Catholic Church, there is nothing in scripture or even in Catholic Tradition to support this (see The Dogma of the Assumption of Mary
).

Mary as Co-Redemptrix

Although not yet declared to be absolute dogma by the Catholic Church, it is, nevertheless, widely believed by Catholics that Mary actually played a part in the redemption of humankind. The idea is that her sufferings helped directly pay for the sins of sinners; hence, she has been termed as Co-Redemptrix. But the Bible nowhere credits Mary with paying for sins; the Bible only credits this role to Christ as you can learn by reading "Hail Mary, Co-Redeemer."

Mary as Co-Mediator

Catholic teaching is that Christ is not the only mediator between God and man. In fact, Catholics show this by praying to dead saints, especially Mary, thinking that these individuals can mediate between them and God on their behalf. But this is simply not true! Holy Scripture clearly teaches that there is only one mediator between God and man, and that mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ:

1Ti 2:5
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

Heb 8:6
But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he [Jesus] is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

Heb 9:15
And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Heb 12:24
And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

Celibacy

The Catholic Church teaches that its priests and bishops must be celibate; that is, they are not permitted to marry, but must be single. This runs completely contrary to biblical teaching. In listing the qualifications for church leadership, 1Timothy 3 states,

1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

Notice that a bishop is to be the husband of one wife. It doesn't say that a bishop is to be celibate, but that a bishop should be the husband of one wife. Obviously, the Bible does not teach celibacy for church leadership, but rather gives marriage as a qualification for church leadership.

The Bible even goes so far as to say that those who would forbid marriage have departed from the faith as we read in 1Timothy 4,

1
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2
Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3
Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

CONCLUSION:

The false teachings previously mentioned are but a few of the many false teachings of Catholicism. There is no question that Catholicism is a false Christianity that worships a false Jesus.

For more information on Catholicism in comparison to the Bible, you can go to the following sites (please realize that Brother Mike Ministries does not necessarily agree with every single doctrine either inferred or taught on any other sites, but simply uses them to help expose the cults):